Yusuf Barman is a Senior Manager at Wavestone, leading Digital Advisory engagements in AI & Cybersecurity and managing the Government & Defense portfolio in Switzerland. An expert on AI, digital sovereignty, and security studies, he has delivered projects across Swiss federal and cantonal bodies, specializing in cybersecurity, generative AI, and on-prem open source LLM deployments. For the Swiss Armed Forces, he has led defense innovation projects as Project and Program Manager, Product Owner, and Lead Requirements Engineer, covering AI-supported tactical operations, surveillance, C4ISTAR, secure authentication, and tactical communications.

In parallel, a reserve officer (Milizoffizier) for over 16 years, he serves as Major in the Swiss Armed Forces Joint Operations Command, with in-depth knowledge of military applications, ecosystems, operations, tactics, and strategy.

Yusuf also spent over five years as a journalist covering business, technology, the military, and regional Swiss politics. He lectures on AI governance, cybersecurity, digital sovereignty, and security studies with guest lectures at the Webster University, the Business Analytics Institute, ZHAW, and the Basel Chamber of Commerce, and has moderated among others events for the European Commission's Open Source Observatory.

Yusuf holds three master's degrees: An MA in Accounting & Finance and an MA in Business Management, both from the University of St.Gallen (HSG), and an MA in International Affairs & Cyber Security from King's College London's Defence Studies Department. He is pursuing his fourth master’s, an MSc in Applied Neuroscience at King's Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience hoping to connect biochemistry and AI with human-in-the-loop discussions and neural networks for his final neuroscience thesis. He holds over 80 industry certifications that span specializations like Generative AI (AWS, Anthropic, Microsoft Azure, MIT Sloan, IAPP AIGP), cybersecurity (CISM, CISA, CRISC), data privacy (CIPP/E/US, CIPM, CIPT), and (agile) project management (PMP, PRINCE2, HERMES Advanced, SAFe SPC, Scrum).